International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers organized
- When
- 1891–1899
- Where
- St. Louis; unknown; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Episodes
- 3
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers was organized in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1891. A convention held in November established the National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which received an American Federation of Labor charter in December. The organization later adopted its current name in 1899.
Episodes
- Convention in St. Louis
A convention was held in St. Louis on November 21, 1891, to establish a national union for electrical workers.
- AFL Charter
The American Federation of Labor granted a charter to the National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in December 1891.
- Name Change
The union's name was officially changed to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers at the 1899 convention.
Background and detail
Background. The organization now known as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers was founded in 1891, two years before George Westinghouse won the electric current wars by lighting the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition with alternating current, and before homes and businesses in the United States had begun receiving electricity.
Formation. By 1891, after sufficient interest was shown in a national union, a convention was held on November 21, 1891, in St. Louis. At the convention, the IBEW, then known as the National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (NBEW), was officially formed.
Charter. The American Federation of Labor gave the NBEW a charter as an AFL affiliate on December 7, 1891. The union's official journal, The Electrical Worker, was first published on January 15, 1893, and has been published ever since.
Name Change. At the 1899 convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the union's name was officially changed to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Sources
- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-18
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.